


Trouble in Paradise

by TessaSmith



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer's Parents Are Homophobic (Julie and The Phantoms), Gen, Hurt Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), POV Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters Backstory (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters Has a Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28958118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaSmith/pseuds/TessaSmith
Summary: ‘How are your parents, actually?’ Julie asked them conversationally.It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. They just finished practice, and Alex and him were flopped on the couch, enjoying the calm warmth that filled the studio that day. Julie and Luke were talking before Luke poofed out, presumably to pay his parents a visit.Julie sat down on the chair opposite where him and Alex sat, asking the question in the way you would ask someone about their favorite color.As if wasn’t a question that just caused a gut-wrenching twisting in his chest and made Alex look like he wasn’t breathing.Or: Reggie and Alex finally try to track down where their families are.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	1. How are your parents?

‘How are your parents, actually?’ Julie asked them conversationally.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. They just finished practice, and Alex and him were flopped on the couch, enjoying the calm warmth that filled the studio that day.

Julie and Luke were talking before Luke poofed out, presumably to pay his parents a visit. Julie sat down on the chair opposite where him and Alex sat, asking the question in the way you would ask someone about their favorite color.

As if wasn’t a question that just caused a gut-wrenching twisting in his chest and made Alex look like he wasn’t breathing.

‘Ehm, yeah. Just fine,’ Reggie said, tone a bit too high. He cleared his throat. ‘Very good actually. Nothing special going on.’ He nodded vigorously.

He saw Alex shake his head in the corner of his eye, pinching his nose, which meant that he hadn’t been very convincing. ‘Yeah, they’re fine,’ Alex said steadily, giving Julie an attempt at a genuine smile. Even if Reggie could clearly spot the lie, it might have been convincing enough for Julie. Alex had always been better at lying than him.

‘Okay…’ She eyed them both for a bit too long. ‘So, ehm… how is Willie?’ She definitely noticed that something was off, but she didn’t push. _Good enough_ , he supposed.

Besides, Alex’s mood immediately lifted at the mention of Willie and it was impossible not to smile when Alex looked that happy.

‘Good,’ Alex said, looking like a schoolgirl with a crush. ‘Everything is good.’

‘Come on, you have to tell me more than that! How was the date last night? What did you do? Where did you go? Did you kiss?’ Julie rattled excitedly.

_How great is this_ , Reggie thought as Alex replied, blushing furiously, but smiling wide. Pre-hotdogs he had never seen Alex look this relaxed talking about one of his crushes. Not even to him or Luke.

‘It does freak me out though,’ Alex told them about their last date, which was at Justin Bieber’s empty swimming pool. ‘Like, what would happen if he falls and busts his head open? I mean, we feel pain – for instance when he ran me over when we first met, that hurt like hell – but we don’t really have real bodies do we? Can we bleed?’

‘So many unanswered questions,’ Reggie said wistfully, ‘so little time.’

Alex laughed, a little exasperated. ‘You dork.’

_‘Julie, can you come down for a minute!’_ they heard Julie’s dad call up to the studio.

‘Alright guys, good practice. Can’t wait for our next gig,’ Julie got up slowly. ‘I’m going to Flynn’s in a bit, so you’ll have to entertain yourselves without me.’

‘I think we’ll survive,’ Reggie teased.

Julie laughed. ‘Well I’ll wish you good luck, just in case,’ and she disappeared from sight as she closed the doors.

He got up from the couch, picking up his bass once again.

Alex spread out on the couch even more, looking ready to take a nap. He thought the drummer had actually fallen asleep, but then said drummer opened his mouth to ask: ‘But really though, how are they?’

Reggie stopped playing. Did he really want to talk about this?

He shrugged, then looked at Alex. ‘How are yours?’

Alex looked away. Reggie continued picking at the strings. _Case closed_ , he thought.

But then: ‘I think we should look for them.’

His fingers stopped playing once more. Giving up, he put his bass down and sat across from Alex, where Julie had been sitting before she left.

‘You went by your house?’ Reggie asked.

Alex nodded. ‘Yeah. It wasn’t turned into a bike shop, looked the same as always, but they weren’t there. Just a bunch of strangers.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Reggie said.

Alex shrugged. ‘Yeah, well… I was kind of relieved.’

Reggie nodded. He felt the same. Seeing his house, his home, turned into a bike shop wasn’t something he was happy about. But the more he thought about how his family might be doing now, the more he was scared to find out.

Chances are, they are not doing well.

‘But you still want to look for them? Even after… everything?’

Alex stood up, starting up a steady rhythm of pacing. ‘I know. I know. They weren’t the best parents during the last period. But if I don’t find them, I’ll always be wondering. Isn’t it nagging you, that you don’t _know_ what happened?’

_It is_ , he admitted to himself. But he could deal with a little nagging. He wasn’t sure he could deal with what he would find if he went looking for them.

‘I’ll help you out, man. We can look around the neighborhood, or find a phonebook or-‘

‘Thanks Reg, but… don’t you think you should look for your own parents?’

He blinked. He’d just wanted Alex to say ‘Thanks, let's do that’ and focus on his friend’s tragedy of a family life – which it really was way more than Reggie’s – instead of his own childish issues.

‘No, dude. We can find yours faster if we-‘

‘Reggie…’ Alex cut him off again.

Reggie stood up, suddenly annoyed. ‘What does it matter? What does it matter whether I see them, or not? I never even wanted to witness it all get so messed up in the first place, and now I actually have a choice about it, so why would I go looking for that?’

He breathed out and in, hesitating over what he was going to say next, before blurting it out anyways. ‘And what if they’re still together? What if they’re finally, truly happy. Not fighting _now that I’m gone?_ ’

He sat back down, running a hand through his hair. ‘Sorry.’

Alex didn’t say anything at first. He just sat down next to him, on the arm of the chair, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving a slight squeeze. ‘Okay, it’s your choice. I shouldn’t have pushed. It’s just…’

‘Just what?’ Reggie asked.

‘What about Angie?’


	2. What about Angie?

The house might be gone, but the beach was the same as always. The water was still wet, the sand still got _everywhere_ , and the volleyball nets still made that eerie noise when wind passed through a hole in one of the poles.

He breathed in the air that was starting to cool down as the sun had almost fully disappeared below the horizon. He stood up and turned around, now facing the bike shop.

He hadn’t admitted it yet, but Alex had convinced him.

_‘What about Angie?_ ’

What about Angie?

His little sister.

What had happened to his sister?

He could still remember playing with his sister on the beach when they were younger, annoying her by tackling her to the ground. She would laugh until she started to cry and then he would quickly stop before his parents heard and got mad at him.

And within a few minutes she would stop crying and start laughing again and try and tackle him, despite her not having even close to enough strength to beat him. And the whole story would repeat.

She idolized him when she was little, supporting the same football teams that he supported, even if she didn’t even know anything about football. She grew out of that blind idolization at some point, but if was never difficult for him to see that she adored him.

And he adored her.

They grew up together here, with the sounds of their parents’ arguing echoing through the walls.

His sister, being three years younger than him, was always more distraught when their parents were arguing. Even when they weren’t shouting, but just annoyed with each other, he could see his sister’s eyes widen.

He would roll his own eyes at her, trying to joke about the old married couple that was their parents. Or he would try to make her laugh, or distract her. Often it worked, though he could tell that deep down she was still scared.

Not long before hotdog night, their parents were having a particularly loud fight. A loud fight that wasn’t loud, just to because their parents felt like being loud, but a fight that was loud because things had been getting steadily worse during that period.

Angie came over to his room, which she always did when the fights are loud. He would play bass on these nights, the music drowning out some of the noise, which was a large part of the reason Angie chose to spend her time in his ‘smelly mess of a room’.

‘What are you going to do after school?’ Angie asked him on that night.

‘Tomorrow?’ he said distractedly.

‘No, like after you graduate. Are you going to move out?’ she said.

‘Oh, who knows? Maybe by then the band will have blown up and we’ll be going on tour.’ Reggie said excitedly. ‘That would be so crazy.’

And he continued playing.

‘Yeah,’ his sister said faintly. ‘Crazy.’

He was confused about her tone at first.

She was probably their biggest fan, always raving about Sunset Curve to all her friends. Normally she was excited about any piece of news Reggie had about the band. So her unenthusiastic answer had him confused.

Then suddenly they heard the sound of glass shattering. He turned off his bass to hear properly what was going on, but there was only silence.

‘Reggie?’ his sister said, clearly scared.

He could feel his own heart beat in his chest. _What was going on?_ This had never happened before.

‘It’s probably nothing,’ he said quickly. ‘Just… stay here.’

He put down his bass and opened his bedroom door hesitantly. He could hear footsteps now, clearly coming his way. He shut the door behind him before his dad appeared in the hallway. Tension was written all over him. Reggie braced himself.

‘It’s late, Reggie. Go to bed,’ was all his dad said, before he gruffly walked by him and to his and mom’s bedroom. He slammed the door behind him.

Reggie let out a breath of relief.

Quietly he sneaked downstairs and to the kitchen, where he found his mom, making a cup of tea. No shards of glass, no blood, nothing else alarming. Just his mom making a cup of tea, even if she looked as tense as his dad had looked.

‘Mom?’ he asked.

‘You want a cup of tea, Reggie?’ she said, giving him a tired smile.

He shook his head. ‘I thought I heard glass?’

‘It’s nothing, Reggie. Just an accident,’ she said. ‘Just… go to bed.’

He wasn’t convinced, but he walked back up the stairs anyways.

_It was okay_. No one was hurt.

In the hallway he could hear sobs coming from Angie’s bedroom door.

Even though he could always tell, Angie never actually told him that the fighting bothered her. And neither did he ever say anything about it to her. They hadn’t cried in front of each other in years.

He knocked softly before walking in.

‘They’re alright,’ he said as he set next where she lay on her bed. ‘No one’s hurt. Just an accident.’

Tears still streamed down her face, but she nodded.

He put a hand on her back. ‘You know how it is. They always fight, but it’s always alright the day after, right?’

She nodded again. ‘What an old married couple, right?’ she said half-heartedly.

He nodded quietly.

He understands now why his sister wasn’t excited anything like a Sunset Curve tour. If he was gone, she would be alone with their parents. She would have to sit at the dinner table while they fought and argued, no one to share a joke or even a glance with.

And less then two weeks later, he died.


End file.
